Automatic coin dispensers



May 16, 1967 H. E. VERBEKE 3,319,

AUTOMATIC COIN DISPENSERS Filed Dec. 20, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 HENRY E.VERBE/(E I 27 L l/ f -T+=%=F%L ATTORNEY H98 ll" I I lNVENTOR y 16, 1967H. E. VERBEKE 3,319,636

AUTOMATIC con: DISPENSERS Filed Dec. 20, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

z x. I /L22 j INVENTOI? HENRY E. VERBEKE ATTORNEY United States PatentOfifice 3,319,636 Patented May 1-6, 1967 3,319,636 AUTOMATlC COINDESPENSERS Henry E. Verbeke, Tannersbrook Road, Chester, NJ. 07930 FiledDec. 20, 1965, Ser. No. 515,088 1 Claim. (Cl. 1332) This inventionrelates to coin dispensers and particularly to a means whereby one mayobtain change such as five nickels upon the deposit of a quarter. Theuse of such change makers is widespread but it requires a great deal ofservice particularly in loading the device since this has always been amanual operation. It is obvious that an automatic means for loading thedevice is greatly to be desired and it is an object of this invention toprovide just such an automatic means.

Applicant refers to the prior art Patent 3,135,271 granted June 2, 1964as showing a very accurate coin dispenser which extracts coins from asingle tube coin reservoir and dispenses them to a customer who hasdeposited other coins of greater value. It is impracticable to feed sucha dispenser directly from a bulk storage bin so that sorting must bedone in at least two steps, first from bulk storage to an accuratelypiled stack of coins and second from a reservoir of such accuratelypiled stack of coins to a coin dispenser such as that described in theabove noted patent. The first of these steps has been a manual operationand has required an undue length of time.

In accordance with the present invention, applicant has provided arotatable disc which he places at the bottom of the bulk storage bin topick coins as it rotates and to drop these coins one by one into the topof a coin tube where they are accurately piled into a stack from which adispenser may feed. The said disc has a thickness dimensionsubstantially the same as the thickness of the coins to be handled andis provided with a circumferential row of aperture each large enough toadmit a coin so that as the disc revolves these apertures are filledwith coins which are moved until the top of the coin tube is reached.Motor means are provided to rotate the said disc and this isautomatically put into operation when the supply of coins in the cointube reaches depletion and thereafter operates for a predetermined timeinterval which is substantially sufficient to fill the coin tube. If inits rotation the said disc fails to have one or more of its aperturesfilled with coins because of the random positions of the said coins inbulk, it is immaterial for the level of the coins stacked in the saidcoin tube may not reach its maximum height with the result that thefollowing operation of the disc will take place at an earlier time. Thepoint is that accurate stacking of the coins in the coin tube is of fargreater importance than the filling of every aperture in thecircumferential row of apertures moving beneath the coins in bulk in thesaid storage bin. It may therefore 'be said that the selection andmovement of the coins is accomplished in two steps the second of whichis of high accuracy and that this accuracy is reached at the expense ofaccuracy in the first step.

Another feature of the invention is a means responsive to the depletionof said stack of coins in said coin tube to trigger the operation of thesaid apertured rotatable disc and to hold it in operation for a timeperiod approaching the time necessary to fill the coin tube. As setforth hereinbefore, it is not necessary to completely fill the coin tubewith an accurately arranged stack of coins since any number of coins inexcess of the minimum which will trigger the operation of the rotatablecoin disc will be sufiicient for a dispensing operation and theoperation of the coin disc will be repeated each time the level of thestacked coins reaches depletion.

Another device intimately associated with the coin tube is the multipleslide coin dispenser which receives the proper number of coins from thestack of coins in the said tube and drops them in a chute to bedelivered to the customer. These slides have a thickness slightly morethan the maximum thickness of the number of coins they will handle andthe upper edge thereof is formed into a'cam surfaceso that when a slideis moved an extra coin is raised upwardly and so is not moved to thedispensing position. The plurality of slides are moved from the positionwhere they receive coins from the said coin tube to the dispensingposition in sequence, whereby a given intended number of coins ishandled by each slide, by way of example, three nickels by the lowermostslide and two nickels by the uppermost slide.

These slides are moved by cams, a double cam surface movable through acomplete cycle of three hundred sixty degrees being provided and rotatedby a motor in response to the deposit of a value in coins equal to thevalue in nickels expected by the customer. During a major portion of thefirst half of the rotation of the cams the lowermost of the slides onlymoves toward the dispensing position to be followed during the remainderof the said first half revolution by the uppermost of the slides wherebythe excess coins held by each slide are cammed above the level of theslide and both slides reach the dispensing position simultaneously, eachinvariably filled with a predetermined number of coins whose sum willequal the proper change to be delivered to the customer. During thesecond half revolution of the said cams both slides move without anyrelative mutual change in position 'back to the point where they receivea new load of coins ready for another dispensing operation.

It may therefore be said that means are provided to move the slidessuccessively from the loading point to the dispensing point andthereafter simultaneously from the dispensing point back to the loadingpoint.

The drawings consist of two sheets, having eight figures as follows:

FIG. 1 is a view from the back of the device with parts broken away togive a schematic view of the coin disc which rotates in the bottom partof the bulk storage bin, the lower part of the coin tube in which thecoins picked up by the said coin disc are stacked and some of thedetails of the cam arrangement for moving the multiple slides of thecoin dispenser,

FIG. 2 is a side view of the device of FIG. 1, showing the motor forrotating the coin disc beneath the bulk supply of coins, andparticularly the arrangement for moving the multiple coin slides at thebottom of the coin tube,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the bottom of the coin tube withthe coin slides in their normal positions at re t.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the arrangement of the partsshown in FIG. 3 after the lowermost of the slides has started itsmovement showing how the top coin in this slide is being cammed upwardlyso that this lowermost slide will move only the proper number of coinsto the dispensing position,

FIG. 5 is another view of the same showing how the uppermost of theslides has started its movement and has cammed an extra coin back upinto the coin tube so that again the proper number of coins is moved,

FIG. 6 is an end view of the slide cam taken on the line 6-6 of FIG. 2to show the arrangement of the two slide cams affixed to the cam bearingplate and the motor means for rotating this plate,

FIG. 7 is another enlarged sectional view of the coin dispenser at thebottom end of the coin tube indicating more clearly the slide fillingstation and the dispensing station, and FIG. 8 is a schematic outlineview of the part of the device used for receiving the larger coins whichare inserted for obtaining change.

of apertures 8, 9 and so on whereby the disc as it revolves i picks upcoins from the bulk pile and drops them one by one through an aperturein the Wall of the bin 1 into the upper end of the tube 2 where theybecome accurately stacked, that is, piled neatly one on top of theother, as indicated in FIG. 1 where the lower part of tube 2 is shownbroken away, and in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 showing in detail the stacking ofcoins in the multiple slides 4 and 5.

The disc 6 is rotated by a motor 12 mounted on the underside of thebottom wall 13 of the storage bin 1 and 'has mounted thereon a timecontrolled switching means 14 which maintains an operating connection tothe motor 12 for a time period substantially sufficient to fill the tube2. In operation, a switching means 15 is controlled by a feeler 16 sothat as the stack of coins becomes depleted the switching means 15 goesinto operation and triggers the means 14 to start the motor 12 and tohold it in operation for a complete cycle of operation thereof.Thereafter the motor 12 is not operatedagain until the stack of coins inthe tube 2 is again nearly depleted.

Again, in operation, a customer who wishes change, drops a quarter, byway of example, into the slot 17 provided therefor and this will operatea switch 18 to trigger the operation of the motor 19 which, throughconventional means causes a full three hundred sixty degree rotation ofa cam bearing plate 20. This plate has affixed to it a cam 21 for movingthe lowermost slide 4 and a similar cam 22 for moving the uppermostslide 5. A cam follower 23 is afiixed to the slide 4 and similarly a camfollower 24 is afiixed to the slide 5. 1 When the plate as shown in FIG.2 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction, the lowermostslide 4 ismoved for a part of thefirst half of a revolution of the plate 20,whereby coin marked 4 is cammed above this lowermost slide. During theremainder of the first half revolution of the plate 2%, the uppermostslide moves and both reach the dispensing point together. Thereafter,both slides are returned to their original positions simultaneously andwithout any relative change in position.

It has been found that three is the maximum number of coins that may beaccurately counted, whereby applicants arrangement of multiple slides isnecessary, the lower slide for handling three coins and the upper slide7 one by one into said tube to be for handling the remaining two where aquarter is being changed.

. into a chute for delivery to a customer.

The plate 20 is moved by a motor 19 triggered by conthe slot 17.

FIG. 7 indicates the normal loading positions of the slides and 5 andshows a deflector 28 for guiding coins What is claimed is:

An automatic coin dispenser comprising a two element device consistingof a first element coin tube comprising the reservoir of a singlereservoir coin dispenser, a sorter for rearranging coins taken fromrandom positions in bulk to a pile of coins accurately stacked in saidcoin tube, said sorter consisting of a bulk storage bin for holding asupply of coins and having a rotatable plate mounted for movement insaid storage bin beneath the said store of coins, said plate having athickness dimension substantially equal to the thickness of coins storedin said bin, said plate having a circumferential line of aperturestherein each substantially equal in diameter to the diameter of a coin,means for rotating said plate to pass said circumferential line ofapertures over the entrance of said tube whereby coins taken from bulkby said plate are dropped accurately stacked therein and. a secondelement set of multiple slides for automatically extracting a pluralityof sets of coins from said stack of coins, each set of coins beinglimited invariably. to a given number and the total of said setsconstituting a predetermined number of coins to be dispensed, meansbeing provided to move said slides of said second element in successionwhereby first the bottom slide and set of coins is extracted while thetop slide and stack of coins is held without movement and then, as partof the same cycle, the top slide and its plurality of coins is extractedwhile the bottom slide is held without movement.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Heim et al194'-10 X ROBERT E. REEVES, Primary Examiner. STANLEY H. TOLLBERG,Examiner.

